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In late 2010, Michael Tsamaz was appointed CEO and Chairman of Greek telecommunications company OTE. OTE still exhibited many traits of a large incumbent organization, with high personnel costs, crippling bureaucracy, lack of customer-centricity, a dull brand, and eroding profitability. Tsamaz was taking over the reins at a time of deep economic crisis in Greece, which would impact the options available to him to transform the company.

For over half a century, most of the world's economies have enjoyed steady growth and prosperity. While this economic growth has reduced the number of people living in poverty, it has come with an increase in economic inequality. The gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in developed countries has widened, with a small proportion of the population reaping an increasingly larger share of a country's economic rewards. This growing economic inequality has been particularly pronounced in the United States, but the phenomenon has also occurred in many nations. This note provides background on aspects of economic inequality. It begins by describing both income inequality and wealth inequality, providing an explanation of two widely used metrics and data that show increasing inequalities over time. It then moves to the factors that might contribute to this inequality, as well to propositions of economic and social consequences that might result from the widening gap. Finally, it addresses the issue of "equality of opportunity" or social mobility. This is an update to the Note on Economic Inequality (2015). It provides additional information on economic inequality, including union membership and inequality and political polarization.

James “Hondo” Geurts, the Acquisition Executive for U.S. Special Operations Command was in the middle of his Senate confirmation hearing in 2017 to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. The questions had a common theme: how would Geurts’s experience running an innovative procurement effort for U.S. Special Forces units enable him to change a much larger—and much more rigid—organization like the U.S. Navy? In one of the most secretive parts of the U.S. military, Geurts founded an open platform called SOFWERX to speed the rate of ideas to Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, and the like. His team even sourced the idea for a hoverboard from a YouTube video. But how should things like SOFWERX and protypes like the EZ-Fly find a place within the Navy writ large?